


how do you feel about flying over the earth? (anything is possible)

by sataelites



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Spiderman AU, spidey! hyuck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2019-08-23 03:44:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16611278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sataelites/pseuds/sataelites
Summary: “having a little trouble keeping up, spidey?” jeers the thief from below, his masked face turned upwards to where donghyuck is currently crouched. donghyuck resents the fact that he doesn’t even sound winded (no, it’s definitely not because donghyuck’s lungs are about to die). the rain has also seemed to have not affected his hair at all and it taunts donghyuck in all it’s pink glory, being oddly enough, completely dry. the villain holds the stolen paintings closer and shoots a smile with too many teeth at donghyuck as he makes a leap across another intersection.taeyong has always said to not let a villain provoke you, but something about the figure below him has donghyuck feelingprovoked. donghyuck can almost see taeyong clicking his tongue at him as he sneers down at the guy below him, “you wish i was, you fuckingjigglypuff”___________________________________________________________________or alternatively, in which donghyuck discovers the struggles that come with being a superhero





	1. small beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> since donghyuck recently said that his english name is peter, i took it as a sign to write a spiderman au that literally no one asked for ! 
> 
> title from vixx’s superhero <3

it was barely nine in the morning and donghyuck’s day had already gone to shit. he cursed his luck under his breath and pulled his mask further down his neck where it was beginning to ride up. the stupid thing was already starting to itch and it hadn’t even been five minutes since he had put it on. 

the day had started with taeyong quite literally dragging him out of bed and yelling in his ear about being late for first period- which he wasn’t even going to be able to go to since he was currently chasing after a thief who was annoyingly enough _faster _than him somehow. on top of all that, he knew he had a history test second period, but at this rate, it looked like he was going to miss that as well. he couldn’t really find it in himself to care all that much about it though, his teacher already hated his guts, and history was just about the dryest subject in the world.__

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donghyuck heaves an impressive sigh as it starts to rain, making it even harder than it already was to keep track of the black clad villain on the streets below him. today was really not his day. the rain also made everything harder for him in terms of chasing after the thief, donghyuck still hadn’t really mastered the art of swinging from building to building yet and was prone to sliding and slipping all over the place (there were a few embarrassing photos taken of him that were circling around the media- he tries his best to ignore them). the rain did not do anything to help things along, making the already slippery brick and glass of the buildings even harder to grasp.

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“having a little trouble keeping up, spidey?” jeers the thief from below, his masked face turned upwards to where donghyuck is currently crouched. donghyuck resents the fact that he doesn’t even sound winded (no, it’s definitely not because donghyuck’s lungs are about to die). the rain has also seemed to have not affected his hair at all and it taunts donghyuck in all it’s pink glory, being oddly enough, completely dry. the villain holds the stolen paintings closer and shoots a smile with too many teeth at donghyuck as he makes a leap across another intersection. 

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taeyong has always said to not let a villain provoke you, but something about the figure below him has donghyuck feeling _provoked _. donghyuck can almost see taeyong clicking his tongue at him as he sneers down at the guy below him, “you wish i was, you fucking _jigglypuff _”____

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donghyuck feels a rush of satisfaction at the indignation in the villain’s voice as he spits out, “what the _fuck _did you just call me?”__

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donghyuck opens his mouth to reply, but instead lets out an embarrassingly high pitched yelp as his web fails to catch on the opposite building properly and instead falls short, drifting slowly to the ground rather pathetically. donghyuck finds himself falling to the ground, and before he can regain his bearings, he’s landing straight onto his back with an undignified groan. it was probably only his enhanced strength that prevented him from breaking every bone in his body, but he still felt very much like shit as he rolled onto his side with another moan of complaint. 

_______ _ _ _

the villain is stood only a couple of metres away from where donghyuck fell, and has the fucking audacity to stand there and fucking _laugh _at donghyuck rather than getting away with his stolen items. donghyuck can feel his face burning red as he pushes his way upright and is thankful, not for the first time, that his mask covers his entire face. he turns his head to where the villain is still chuckling softly. he notices, with a spark of annoyance, that the guy is taller than him, and broader around the shoulders as well.__

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“are you done being an asshole yet?” donghyuck snarls out, as he leans against the wall and tries and fails to appear as if he isn’t in pain- his body lists to the right as his left ankle seems to have been busted in his fall as well. the villain may not be able to see his face, but he can clearly tell that donghyuck is injured. it would’ve been the perfect opportunity to attack him, to do _something _, but the thief just shoots him an annoyingly sparkly smile (no villain had the right to be looking that angelic while they smiled, donghyuck thought to himself resentfully).__

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“i’m sorry,” he laughs, sounding not very sorry at all, “that was the funniest thing i’ve seen in a while”. the villain adjusts his half-mask with his left hand and snorts, “i thought you were supposed to be a _professional _”__

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donghyuck grits his teeth and is about to respond, but he’s interrupted by a loud series of beeps coming from the villain’s wrist. he shoots a grin at donghyuck “well, as thrilling as this is, it’s my time to go,” he adjusts the stolen items underneath his arm and leaves with a smirk and a flippant wave at donghyuck from over his shoulder. 

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he disappears from sight with a final, “pleased to make your acquaintance, spidey. i’m sure you’ll be seeing more of me soon!” the thief even has the guts to wink back at donghyuck, knowing full well that he was in no condition to chase after him and his thousands of dollars worth of art. fucking _asshole _.__

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donghyuck leans his head back against the rain-slick wall, and mutters some choice words that would make renjun proud under his breath. _damn it _.__

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it takes donghyuck absolutely forever to finally make it home since the thief had led him to the middle of buttfuck nowhere during the chase. nothing seems familiar, and donghyuck’s phone display blinks a threatening 3% battery back at him when he checks it. he wanders around aimlessly, moving at a snail’s pace and drawing concerned looks from those he came across on the footpath. donghyuck would rather they not stare, but grudgingly admits to himself that you don’t get to see a kid clad in blue and red spandex wheezing their way down the street everyday. 

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by the time he makes it home, he has well and truly missed the entire school day and he feels like absolute _trash _. the sky had insisted upon raining during the entirety of his trek home and as a result his suit felt almost fused to his skin at this point, and he felt like he was two seconds away from contracting pneumonia. and on top of his back and ankle still screaming with every minute movement he made, donghyuck felt like pure shit.  
he staggers his way up the stairs and with every single step is full of regret that he won that one game of scissors paper rock against taeyong for the upstairs bedroom. in hindsight, it wasn't a good idea to have an upstairs bedroom when he was constantly injuring himself because of the whole superhero situation. he must’ve made a lot of noise on his way up, as when he sinks onto his bed and tears his mask off of his face, taeyong is there, immediately rushing over to him and scanning his form with concern. __

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“you feel like shit donghyuck, what happened to you?” taeyong says, his eyes full of worry. his hands shake slightly when they move to run through donghyuck’s red hair (donghyuck should’ve probably known better than to take up a bet with renjun, he’s practically guaranteed to lose it, thus the red- jokes on renjun though, he manages to pull off red _nicely _)__

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donghyuck knows that taeyong isn’t that strong of an empath, so for him to be feeling what donghyuck is feeling means that this is pretty fucking bad. donghyuck tries his absolute best to conjure up some positive feelings to ease taeyong’s worries and it must have worked somewhat if the small quirk to the corner of taeyong’s mouth is indicative of anything.

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“it was an art thief, i chased him, i made a mistake, and he got away,” donghyuck mumbles. taeyong says nothing, and lays a supportive hand on his shoulder, but donghyuck knows that he’ll be interrogated more on what happened later. he isn't looking forward to that conversation, taeyong can get ridiculously overbearing at times, especially when he makes mistakes that could have been avoided. and the entire situation could've been avoided completely if donghyuck had just been _good _enough.__

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taeyong helps donghyuck to the bathroom, where they both struggle with his suit for a while (“oh my god hyuck, why the fuck is your suit so tight?” "shut the hell up taeyong, you know it makes my ass look fucking _magnificent _") before it peels off reluctantly. once the suit is off, taeyong sucks in a quiet breath, donghyuck can see why, in the mirror he can see that almost all of his back is a battlefield of red and purple bruising, and there’s a few minor scrapes along the top of his shoulders that ooze small beads of blood. taeyong probes at his ribs and deems them to be cracked, and his ankle is pretty fucked as well. _fantastic. _____

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but even though taeyong isn’t that good of an empath, he makes up for it with his affinity for healing. bruises vanish under the touch of his gentle fingers within a few seconds and donghyuck feels like he can finally breathe properly after taeyong touches at his ribs a couple of times. but even taeyong has his limits, and donghyuck still feels like death after taeyong is finished, but it’s better. instead of feeling like he was hit by an entire farm, it only felt like he was run over by three tractors (give or take) consecutively. so, still bad, but definitely better.

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taeyong steps away from donghyuck and he looks exhausted (the glow to his eyes is barely there anymore and donghyuck _hates _that taeyong used so much energy to take care of him), but he still manages to shoot donghyuck a wan smile before practically ordering him to get his ass into bed and to take it easy for the next couple of days- threatening him with the deprivation of both cookies (donghyuck would 100% die for one of taeyong’s homemade cookies) and cuddles (practically a death sentence) if donghyuck so much as moved out of bed before the next time taeyong would be able to heal him further.__

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donghyuck complies with a pout and trudges off to his bedroom where he collapses onto his bed with a sigh. this superhero thing (did he even classify as a superhero yet?) was not all that it cut out to be. it _sucked _. donghyuck had barely even been in the business for six months and he'd already almost died about twenty times, not that he regretted it though, it was worth it, he thought, to be making the world a better place one small step at a time.__

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__he turns over in bed and groans again as he realises that taeyong would've for sure told doyoung about what happened, which meant that jeno would know, which meant that renjun would most definitely be finding out about it. donghyuck can already practically see the devilish grin on renjun's face when he finds out that donghyuck has lost yet another bet to him (donghyuck really needs to stop betting with renjun, but he _really _thought he could've made two weeks without falling off of another building). renjun's practically cheating since he has a small clairvoyant ability, but donghyuck indulges him nonetheless. god, he needs better friends.___ _

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____sighing, donghyuck closes his eyes and wonders what his luck will bring him tomorrow. _surely _it couldn't be worse than the shitfest that was today.___ _ _ _

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	2. the devil has a heart !

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which donghyuck is fixed, then broken, then fixed again
> 
> (and renjun is softer than he seems)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here i am again with another barely edited chapter fhjdasl
> 
> i've made it a personal mission to mention every nct member at least once throughout this fic. blink and you might miss it !

true to renjun’s devilish nature, the first thing donghyuck wakes up to in the morning is a series of text messages from him that were practically just straight up insults, as well as some gloating over the fact that he had won yet another bet. donghyuck rolls his eyes, knowing that renjun is concerned but just likes to hide it behind a veneer of assholery. _typical._

 

**the actual devil <3**

jeno told me what happened

he was being a huge baby about it, but it’s not like you died or anything !!

icb you actually fell off a building again you barely lasted five days into the bet ahdslj

i thought you said you were getting better you absolute liar lol

i’m still laughing, you’re such an idiot

you realise this means i win right >:))

you owe me twenty !

 

**not an octopus**

jun i literally could’ve died, can you not ?

 

**the actual devil <3**

but you didn’t did you

 

**not an octopus**

...no

 

**the actual devil <3**

give me the money when you actually bother turning up to school then <33

 

**not an octopus**

i hate you with literally every inch of my being, renjun >:(

 

**the actual devil <3**

that’s not a lot of inches lmaoo

 

**not an octopus**

i’m literally taller than you, you dick !!

 

donghyuck sighs as he throws his phone somewhere onto his covers and sits up in bed with a slight wince. his entire body still felt like literal death, but he’s absolutely starving and he can smell taeyong cooking something that smelt ridiculously good downstairs. and for all that taeyong insists that being good at cooking isn’t one of his powers, donghyuck adamantly believes that it _has_ to be, because god, taeyong’s cooking was to _die_ for.

he struggles down the stairs and finally makes it down to the first floor, feeling decidedly more deathly than he had five minutes ago, but it was worth it since he could see that taeyong had made a giant stack of pancakes for breakfast.

to donghyuck’s amusement, taeyong had dug up the pink apron adorned with sparkly hearts (a gift from johnny for his birthday last year) from somewhere in the house and was wearing it proudly as he hummed along to the opening strains of the song playing on the radio. taeyong looked up and smiled at donghyuck as he settles down at the table, only to pull a face when donghyuck pours an inane amount of maple syrup onto the stack of pancakes.

“i can already feel my teeth rotting in my mouth just looking at that,” taeyong grimaces as he tries to flip a pancake over, only to curse as he fails and it flops sadly in half.

donghyuck pointedly meets taeyong’s eyes as he squeezes more syrup onto the already drowning pancakes. taeyong rolls his eyes at him, “why do i even bother with you sometimes, hyuck”.

they’re quiet for a while, with only the sizzle of the pancakes cooking filling in the silence between them before taeyong speaks,”i called kun earlier and he said he could take another look at your ribs and ankle for me if they’re still really bad, he’s always been better at healing bones than i’ve been anyway. i can drop you off at his place later if you’re feeling up to it?”

donghyuck nods and adds, “maybe i can get him to have a look at doc for me as well” (donghyuck had a small collection of tiny succulents named after each of the seven dwarves, and doc had definitely seen better days).

taeyong laughs openly at him, “god, i’m surprised none of your plants have died yet, to be honest. you can barely take care of yourself, let alone another living thing”.

donghyuck scowls darkly at him and chews violently on his mouthful of pancake. _asshole._

 

***

 

while taeyong is also a healer, he can only really deal with living things and even then, he’s always been better at healing flesh wounds or concussions rather than broken bones. so when donghyuck is injured and taeyong can’t heal him fully, he goes to kun for fixing (this happens more often than he’d like to admit, since one of the many things he has yet to master in the whole superhero gig is the art of falling without breaking himself. sadly, yesterday was a prime example of this).

donghyuck actually isn’t sure of what exactly kun’s power is, only that his skill lies in being able to fix pretty much anything- from bones, to messed up laptops, to dying plants (donghyuck is practically at kun’s place every week, what with the whole fighting crime thing, and his lack of a green thumb, and taeyong being a dick and spilling orange juice all over his new laptop). donghyuck also has no idea of the limits of kun's power, besides the fact that kun absolutely  _cannot_ stand the sight of blood, which was why taeyong was on call for those types of things.

the ride to kun’s building is short- being barely fifteen minutes- but in those fifteen minutes donghyuck reaffirms why he never lets taeyong drive him anywhere. because, for all that it is in taeyong’s nature to be a massive worrier and a healer- taeyong drives with all the aggression of a stressed out soccer mum at her child’s losing game. the short time spent in the car with taeyong driving collated about three different occasions of being beeped at, one close call with a both pedestrian _and_ a cyclist and about ten years off of donghyuck’s life. donghyuck’s fingers also seem to almost be stuck in their white knuckled grip around doc’s bright orange pot.

at the end of the trip, donghyuck silently resolves to get his license as soon as possible.

taeyong helps him into the lift to kun’s fourth floor apartment before disappearing back outside to his car in a rush (the fact that the car has survived four years in taeyong’s care without being totalled is beyond a miracle to donghyuck) with some mumbles about ten and johnny being dumb and hurting themselves trying to make a new ray-gun. donghyuck isn’t very surprised to hear it- ten was constantly thinking up new inventions and johnny usually went and followed ten’s lead in most things, being perfectly willing to contribute his knowledge to his boyfriend’s plans (most of their experiments ended up being explosive, leaving taeyong to take care of the mess, but that had never stopped the duo from attempting increasingly more absurd creations over the years).

kun’s apartment is one of donghyuck’s favourite places ever. it’s practically a second home to him with how often he’s there, and there always seems to be something different about the place every time he visits. this time, kun has seemingly given up on trying to create good feng shui in his apartment, and the space has returned to its normal state of plant and book chaos (the time before the feng shui phase was a minimalist attempt which lasted all of two hours before kun had amassed a new collection of to-be-fixed things, plants and old books).

donghyuck opens the door (kun’s door was always unlocked. no one in the building really wanted to mess with kun. to mess with kun, was to mess with sicheng. and sicheng was fucking _scary_ ) and somehow manages to immediately run into a plant that was hanging precariously from the ceiling (that was just asking for an accident to happen, donghyuck thinks). the plant falls to the ground with an embarrassingly loud crash and donghyuck winces.

there’s a shrill laugh from the couch and donghyuck sees chenle grinning sharply at him, “i thought you were supposed to have, and i quote you directly, _superior reflexes_ ” he says mockingly.

“shut _up_ chenle, if i wasn’t so fucking injured my hands would be around your neck right now,” donghyuck snarls back. the only response he gets is another high laugh as chenle leans back into the unreasonable amount of cushions on the couch. what a _brat_.

but if donghyuck is good at anything in this world, it’s at being petty. so he smirks down at chenle as he says innocently, “so, i heard you had a bit of a crush on little sungie, huh?”

chenle goes a deep red that almost rivals the colour of donghyuck’s hair. donghyuck grins in victory as he leans forward to add, “jisung told me that he saw you watching him working on his routine in the dance studio the other day, the giant sunglasses and the fake moustache weren’t very convincing, lele”

chenle is so embarrassed he starts sinking into the couch- literally- chenle had phased almost half of his body through the black leather of the couch before he composes himself and becomes solid again with a pout in donghyuck’s direction.

donghyuck was just about to land the finishing blow, but he is interrupted by kun emerging from one of the other rooms in the apartment. kun motions lazily at the smashed pot on the ground and the broken pieces of terracotta begin to languidly piece themselves together again. he then turns to donghyuck with a smile, “well, if you’re quite done tormenting chenle, let’s take a look at what you’ve done to yourself”.

chenle sticks his tongue out at donghyuck as he leaves the room and donghyuck makes a face back at him before turning to follow kun into his room.

kun’s room is filled to the brim with old books, kun’s most treasured plants and random trinkets that are littered on every available surface that is remotely flat. kun has to move a bunch of opened textbooks off of his bed before donghyuck can sit down.

donghyuck carefully places doc down on a nearby stack of books before taking off his shirt reluctantly (raising his arms over his head felt like murder) and rolling his sweatpants up over his left ankle carefully. taeyong had taken care of most of the bruising around his ribs that had re-appeared overnight and the swelling of his ankle had gone down significantly after he had tried to heal him more before they left the house, but donghyuck still felt really fucking awful.

kun takes a careful look at his ribs and nods in approval, “well, taeyong is getting a bit better at healing ribs, i think”. kun’s fingers trace along donghyuck’s chest gently, and he immediately feels a sense of relief as his pain dissipates with every movement of kun’s hands. the tension he hadn’t even realised he was holding in his shoulders releases.

kun moves on to inspect his ankle and clicks his tongue at donghyuck. “jesus, hyuck, how could you think that walking on this ankle was a good idea? you could’ve called sicheng and he wouldn’t have had a problem with moving you up here”.

donghyuck thinks that sicheng would very much have had a problem with helping someone that wasn’t kun, but he stays silent. sicheng would’ve probably sooner have crushed donghyuck to mush with his telekinesis rather than float him gently up to kun’s apartment- no matter what kun believes (chenle has always been donghyuck’s favourite of kun’s roommates, even though the brat can be insufferable at times, at least he’s not as openly terrifying as sicheng)

kun heals donghyuck’s ankle quickly and turns to where doc is looking decidedly almost dead in its pot. he raises an unimpressed eyebrow at hyuck (pretty much all of his plants had been tended to by kun at this stage), but good-naturedly waves a hand and doc perks up and looks much less yellow than he had prior. donghyuck beams and mentally adds points to kun’s tally on his favourite hyung list (kun was just a few points behind taeyong who was tied with taeil for first place).

 

***

 

donghyuck finds himself swinging towards renjun’s apartment at just past two in the morning in a sort of frenetic manner (he hasn’t put on the suit as the whole hero thing is weighing heavily on his mind at the moment, so he can’t really afford to be seen by anyone). when he finally reaches the cramped apartment that renjun shares with jeno he slips in through the window they seem to always forget to close (they leave it open on purpose for nights such as these, but renjun would rather fling himself out of that very same window than admit it to donghyuck). on his way to renjun’s room, donghyuck nearly trips over bongshik (jeno loves his cats with all of his big, soft heart, even though keeping them means he has to take antihistamines like they’re lollies), who looks back at him reproachfully. he whispers a quick apology and gives the cat a quick pat before opening renjun’s door and slipping inside.

renjun is, unsurprisingly, awake (the boy never seems to sleep at night, and donghyuck has half convinced himself that renjun must be a vampire) and is strewn diagonally across his bed on his stomach. he looks up from where he was lazily scrolling through his phone and opens his mouth, his face pulled into a scowl, only to close it again when he sees the look on donghyuck’s face.

renjun lifts the corner of the blanket he currently wrapped in in a silent invitation. donghyuck crawls under the covers and cuddles as close as is physically possible to renjun, who makes a face, but indulges donghyuck (because even though renjun can be an asshole sometimes, he is, first and foremost, donghyuck’s closest friend).

there’s a couple of beats of silence before renjun speaks, “what are you thinking of, hyuck?” donghyuck can feel the thrum of his voice from his place on renjun’s chest and it gives him a small kind of comfort, but donghyuck just shifts slightly before he mumbles, “can we please just cuddle? i don’t want to talk about heavy things, jun”.

renjun practically bends his neck in half to give donghyuck a disapproving look.

donghyuck lasts about five seconds before he cracks under renjun’s narrowed eyes (only jeno seemed to be immune to this glare, and donghyuck resolves to grill him later on how he does it)

“i’m just so sick of not being _good_ enough, jun! what’s the point of having all of these stupid abilities if i can’t actually _help_ anyone? i’m trying so _fucking_ hard and i never seem to do anything right, i couldn’t even manage to catch that stupid thief yesterday, and it felt like he was mocking me the whole time, he wasn’t even _threatened_ by me being there. i’m just so sick of feeling so _useless_ ,”

to donghyuck’s embarrassment, he finds himself getting emotional and struggles to speak past the growing lump in his throat, “it’s been months since i started trying this whole hero thing out, and i don’t seem to be getting better, and the failures just keep on adding up and i don’t have to be an empath to see that taeyong is probably getting sick of hea-”

“okay, slow down for a second hyuck,” renjun interjects softly. “breathe”. donghyuck tries his best to calm down, but once the tears started, they just kept on coming, and his breaths were coming as barely controlled sobs despite his attempts to rein them in. he's kind of mortified. 

renjun shifts in positions so that he was able to meet donghyuck’s eyes, “look, even the biggest of superheroes has had to start from small beginnings, stop comparing yourself to heroes that have been in the business for years, because that isn’t fair to you, hyuck. there are people out there who appreciate you for what you _are_ , for what you’re _doing_ , so don’t let one failure stop you from believing that you’re making a difference, because you _are_. even if it's only by one small step at a time”.

renjun looks almost embarrassed when he adds, “hell, i hate to be all mushy and shit, but even just having you in my life makes it better, there’s something about you, hyuck, that makes other people believe in the good in the world. so, have some faith in yourself, you dumbass, you’re fully capable of being the best superhero out there”.

“you really think so?” donghyuck asks sceptically, even though his heart is feeling very much full (this is just about the largest amount of kind words that renjun has consecutively said to him ever)

“i really do,” renjun says, rolling his eyes at him.

“so the devil has a heart after all,” donghyuck snorts, while trying to discreetly wipe at his wet face on renjun’s hoodie.

“i’m already regretting saying those things to you, that was so not my brand,” renjun says with a groan, as he pushes hyuck away from him, making a face at the wet patch on his clothes.

but donghyuck knows that renjun meant every word he said and didn’t regret it, because if there’s one thing that donghyuck knows with whole-hearted certainty in this world, it’s that renjun (even if sometimes it doesn't look it) will always have his back.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, any feedback at all would be appreciated <3
> 
> i also haven't set the other members' abilities in stone yet, so any suggestions are welcomed !
> 
> i hope the dialogue between renjun and hyuck wasn't too bad hhh i kind of suck at giving advice myself 
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/_sataellites) | [cc](https://curiouscat.me/sataellites)


	3. a small piece of the sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which donghyuck meets someone new, and there is a storm brewing on the horizon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter fought me from start to finish, and you wouldn't believe the number of times i've scrapped what i've had and rewritten the chapter entirely. but it's finally here, after the longest time hh
> 
> i honestly think it still sucks, and that it's a little all over the place, but i think this is the best i could manage without taking another long while to stew over the chapter. words are hard- and the first half of this chapter especially is not my best,,,, i kind of hate it but !! i felt bad for leaving it this long so i just decided to post it (and it was better than what i had written previously hh)
> 
> i've also been incredibly busy with the start of my first year of university, and sorting things out with myself- so the past couple of months have been,,,, a lot. i'm struggling to find time to write this, so i don' t know when the next chapter will be released, but be rest assured that it will come eventually !!
> 
> so, without further ado, here's the next chapter xx

when donghyuck stumbles through his bedroom window after returning from renjun’s apartment, he very nearly falls backwards from his perch on the windowsill since there’s an honest to god tiger on his bed. the animal blinks slowly back at donghyuck, unimpressed, as he scrambles to regain his balance- one eye a blazing amber, the other, a warm pool of brown. 

donghyuck has what feels like several heart attacks and has backed himself as far away from the animal as possible (because the tiger looked like it was absolutely fully capable of ripping his face off, jesus) before he realises who it is. he narrows his eyes at the cat, annoyed, “what the fuck, mark, you’re going to shed all over my bed, you asshole!”

mark meets donghyuck’s gaze and pointedly rolls his eyes at him. donghyuck groans, “come on, mark, please”. 

mark huffs at him and bares his teeth playfully (donghyuck feels his heart leap in his chest at the sight even though he knows that mark is about as likely to hurt him as a cooked noodle), but complies, and soon enough, mark the human is sitting on his bed with crossed arms and narrowed eyes. “wow, hyuck, i’m back home for the first time in a month and this is how you treat me?” (mark had been away on a mission with yukhei for the past month which was verily a recipe for disaster in donghyuck’s humble opinion- the two of them put together was practically a guarantee for something to go wrong since mark was just about the unluckiest person on the planet and yukhei, was, well, yukhei)

to top it all off, to his horror, donghyuck realises that mark is wearing donghyuck’s favourite sweater- and it’s practically covered completely in fur at this point (upon seeing this, donghyuck has to take five careful breaths to calm himself).

mark sees the look on donghyuck’s face and shoots a mocking smile at him that exposes his still too-sharp canines. donghyuck sends him a dark glare, but cuddles himself into mark’s side nonetheless- to which mark flinches away from him (which isn’t all that unusual since mark tends to dislike cuddling unless he’s in a different form, but the small noise of pain that mark tries and fails to suppress is what clues donghyuck into thinking that something is wrong). 

he narrows his eyes at mark, “what happened, you’re obviously hurt, mark”

mark says nothing in response and aims his mismatched eyes to donghyuck’s (fur covered) blue bed sheets. after a few beats of strained silence, wherein donghyuck channels all of his frustration into glaring pointedly at the shapeshifter, mark chooses to acquiesce and mutters out a reluctant, “there’s nothing to worry about donghyuck, it’s just a scratch”.

donghyuck sighs, because he knows mark almost better than he knows himself (a result of pretty much the entirety of his life being spent with mark by his side- mark may not be related to him by blood, but he was an older brother for donghyuck when taeyong couldn’t be there). and mark would never admit to being hurt because he hated needing taeyong to heal him, because according to him, other people needed healing before him (taeyong had stopped listening to mark’s refusals after the one scare they got when mark had insisted he only had a scratch and moments later had literally passed out on the floor due to copious amounts of blood loss and had very nearly gone into hypovolemic shock- taeyong had practically lost his mind and ever since then, no one had really taken mark seriously when he said he just had a “scratch”)

unfortunately, taeyong isn’t even home- he was away on an urgent healing call- far enough away that even johnny wouldn’t be able to reach him in a single jump. johnny’s range for teleportation was large, but even he definitely couldn’t manage travelling to other countries without being out of commission for a couple of days as taeyong was in japan and would be for the rest of the week. on top of that, teleporting with johnny felt kind of like being thrown into a blender and spun around on the highest setting- coupled with the uneasy feeling of freefall- all in all, donghyuck would 10/10 not recommend. 

upon closer inspection, he can see the way mark is cradling his left arm against his chest and is angling himself away from donghyuck. he takes mark’s hand carefully and in spite of his protests, leads him to the bathroom to get cleaned up. 

the fluorescent glow of the bathroom light makes mark look sickly- donghyuck hadn’t noticed how pale he had looked in the darkness of his bedroom, but here, under the bright lights, mark’s skin has taken on a decidedly ghostly pallor that is almost frightening to look at. 

mark is standing in the corner looking like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world but in donghyuck’s bathroom, but he has given up on dissuading donghyuck from looking at his injuries as he says nothing when he cuts mark’s (donghyuck’s sweater- he was dying inside when he cut the fabric, but it had to be done) sweater off. 

donghyuck sucks in a shocked breath when he sees what’s beneath the fabric, “in what world do fucking bullet wounds count as scratches mark?”

“i heal quickly,” mark protests half heartedly, but he quickly quietens when donghyuck shoots him a poisonous look. 

donghyuck only really knows the absolute basics of first aid- definitely not enough to even be remotely capable of dealing with bullet wounds, but he tries his best to clean and bandage the wounds. he had tried to convince mark to go to the hospital to get treated properly, but he was met with a sharp no and a quiet, “you know they don’t like people like me being there, hyuck”- and hyuck knew, of course he did, he knew what mark had to deal with- why he had to wear a contact lens to obscure his one bright eye- there was a very obvious dichotomy that existed between those that were gifted and those that weren’t. put on a mask, and you were a hero- but walk the streets with even a small hint at being different, and you were ostracised. labelled a freak and feared for your differences. after all, there was a reason why mark, for all of his determination and drive could never keep a job- and donghyuck hated it.  
in the end, donghyuck has to take things into his own hands and tries his absolute best to patch mark up. his stitches might have been crooked and the bandages were probably bound entirely wrong- but donghyuck is tired (it is nearing 5am, and fuck, he still has classes tomorrow) and he isn’t a taeyong by any means, so all in all, he thinks he’s done an okay job (although he promises to get taeyong to look over it as soon as he gets back, because even if mark is a fast healer, he doesn’t trust him to speak up if he’s still hurting, or if donghyuck had somehow managed to fuck up mark’s shoulder movement).

mark looks like he’s about two seconds away from passing out, so donghyuck drags the both of them over to his bed (“i literally have a bedroom downstairs hyuck, what the fuck” “shut up mark”). he turns over and mark’s eyes shine back at him like a cat’s in the half-light of his bedroom (which is simultaneously creepy and cool as fuck). donghyuck mutters a quiet goodnight and shuffles closer to mark, placing one of his legs between mark’s and leaving a careful arm over mark’s chest despite his half-asleep protests. donghyuck ignores him smugly, and closes his eyes- his thoughts a whirr of reflective eyes in the dark, stitches, and a boy who is far too selfless for his own good. 

***

without taeyong in the house to make breakfast, donghyuck is very much unwilling to let either mark or himself have a go at cooking since that would almost inevitably end in disaster (they had both nearly set the kitchen into flames in previous attempts at cooking, and despite hyuck being a passable cook these days, he had explicit instructions from taeyong that he was not under any circumstances to cook without supervision, especially with mark). donghyuck also only has barely half an hour before his bus comes, and he’s still half-asleep, undressed, hungry and deeply considering skipping his morning lecture. donghyuck debates with himself in the kitchen for a moment before yelling for mark to come downstairs. 

when mark stumbles into view at the top of the stairs, he is wearing an oversized white t-shirt with several holes in its left sleeve and one too many coffee stains scattered across its chest- it’s sort of endearing, hyuck thinks to himself- that mark will literally wear something to bits if he loves it enough. 

donghyuck holds out his hand, “scissors, paper, rock, mark. come on”

mark groans, “again? really?” 

donghyuck wiggles his hand insistently at mark, “this is how we decide things in this household mark lee- and if i win i’m skipping my first class today.”

mark rolls his eyes at donghyuck, but he complies- and loses- because mark always seems to lose these games, and donghyuck knows this and takes advantage of it at every available opportunity. “perfect,” donghyuck says with a wide smile on his face as he heads back upstairs, “get dressed, mark. we can go get breakfast from taeil’s cafe.”

mark makes a face, “didn’t taeil literally tell us he wasn’t going to give us free food anymore after that one time we brought yukhei with us?”

donghyuck snorts, “relax, taeil loves me! and yukhei isn’t even with us this time, it’ll be cool.”

“if you say so,” mark says with a small frown on his face. 

donghyuck laughs openly, and claps a hand on mark’s shoulder- only to grimace and immediately pull away, “oh shit sorry, i forgot”

mark waves his worried hands away, “it’s fine, hyuck, i’m already practically healed. it didn’t hurt”

“those were fucking bullet wounds, mark,” donghyuck hisses, “there’s no way you’d be okay after that”

mark rolls his eyes and tugs the wide collar of his shirt to the side, and to donghyuck’s chagrin the bullet wounds looked like shallow grazes. donghyuck chooses to say nothing as mark shoots him a triumphant smirk as he walks down the stairs. 

***

taeil is just about the complete opposite of what you’d expect someone with the ability to control shadows would look like- he’s all soft colours, sweater paws and the ever present smell of the bread and pastries he made in the cafe he managed. the only thing that ruined his soft image is the still pink scar that curved in a crescent-moon from his right cheekbone and sliced across his neck in a mockery of a smile. taeil hadn’t been back on active duty since- mostly because taeyong hadn’t cleared him for activity yet, but also because they hadn’t worked out a way for taeil to communicate over the comms after losing his ability to speak for a while (doyoung could have maybe helped, but he wasn’t really one for fieldwork, and although taeil could stand doyoung’s nagging for longer than most, even he had his limits). 

taeil raises his eyebrows when donghyuck and mark enter the cafe. the cafe is mostly empty, with only a few desperate looking university students curled over their laptops with a coffee at close hand. donghyuck saunters his way towards the counter with a winning smile on his face, but before he can even begin to speak, taeil raises a hand and signs a firm _no_ at him. donghyuck’s face falls and mark makes a smug sound from somewhere behind him. 

“please, taeil” he whines. he stares determinedly at taeil, who is trying his best to look intimidating, which was hard to do when he was decidedly shorter than donghyuck, and was currently being swamped in a giant sweater. donghyuck huffed in frustration and stared harder- he wasn’t going to let mark be right, even if he had to stand here for a couple of minutes to wear taeil down. a few moments pass, and donghyuck can practically feel taeil caving. and finally, with a sigh, but with a fond sort of smile on his face, taeil moves to the side and allows both boys into the kitchen. 

****

 **snow white**  
donghyuck  
hyuck  
hyuckie  
dongsookieee 

**dhyuck !**  
call me dongsookie one more time and i’ll murder you in your sleep jeno

 **snow white**  
it’s cute though :>

 **dhyuck !**  
no, it’s really, really not !  
no one calls me that anymore for a reason >:(  
who told you about that anyway

 **snow white**  
renjun did lmao  
anyways  
have you checked out the news lately ?

 **dhyuck !**  
wow yet another reason for me to hate renjun !  
but no i haven’t ?

 **snow white**  
you might want to there’s an article going around  
it’s about you  
and hyuck ?  
please don’t take it too srsly  
also, i’m missing you in our bio lecture :((

donghyuck thought that he would have gotten used to having so many eyes on him. but even though he tried his best to not let it get to him, being out of the suit was like a breath of fresh air. the red and blue almost felt suffocating at times. his every action was watched and judged and reported- and donghyuck was tired. the pressure to make the right decisions, to choose where he was needed the most, they all felt too heavy at times for donghyuck, who couldn’t even decide what to wear to university some days.

and so, thursdays and sundays were strictly donghyuck only days, and the suit stayed buried beneath a pile of clothes at the bottom of his wardrobe for those days. taeyong had made it a rule after donghyuck had made crawling into his bed to complain (and cry) an almost daily habit in an attempt to get donghyuck to take at least some time off and despite donghyuck’s protests that he could handle it, and his complaints about mark not having enforced days off, it became a rule of the house (taeyong also seemed to have a sense for when donghyuck would decide to break the rule, and always seemed to materialise out of nowhere when donghyuck would attempt to sneak into the suit on those days).

today was thursday, which meant donghyuck didn’t have all that much to do, especially since he had skipped his only class today. he leaned back further into multitude of pillows on his bed, sighing. he had several assignments that he should’ve started weeks ago, but he wasn’t quite desperate enough in his boredom to resort to doing work. 

donghyuck had just decided to roll over and nap to waste time when his phone vibrated several times in succession.

**megamind**

brat, come over asap, there’s someone i want you to meet  
also taeyong’s still here ??  
his thoughts are so loud i might actually be sick  
pls come collect him before i rip my hair out @@

donghyuck frowns down at his phone screen, surprised, doyoung barely ever messaged anyone- instead preferring to yell into their minds from wherever he was- donghyuck was glad he hadn’t, the last time doyoung had surprised him like that he had shattered his favourite mug (which was an experience that he would rather not repeat- he had patched the mug back together with copious amounts of super glue, but ice bear’s face would never look the same) 

donghyuck read over the messages properly and frowned. taeyong was back? it was weird that he was back early, and even weirder that he hadn’t dropped by their house first or even sent donghyuck a single message. 

donghyuck figures it might have to do with the person doyoung wanted him to meet, so he quickly slips on a hoodie and is out the door with a quick soft look at mark who is endearingly enough passed out on the couch with his mouth wide open. 

doyoung’s place is a bit further away than kun’s apartment, so donghyuck finds himself in front of his door some thirty minutes later. he taps on the door tentatively, (doyoung was kind of still mad at him from when he hadn’t had a handle on his strength one time and had made a massive crack in the wood of the door- it’s still there, and donghyuck winces at the sight of it).

the door swings open to reveal a stranger. the man is slightly taller than donghyuck is, and looks as if he literally just rolled out of bed to answer the door. half of his dark hair is valiantly hanging onto the small ponytail it’s tied into, whilst the other half is mussed around in a wild attempt at an halo around his head. behind him, the apartment is still swathed in darkness and the man squints at donghyuck as he gestures for him to step inside. 

donghyuck follows him into the apartment and tries not to be too impressed when the man in front of him makes a small gesture with his hands and the apartment is suddenly lit up with small globes of light- almost like little stars. donghyuck approaches one curiously and gives it a tentative poke- his finger goes right through it, but he can feel the warmth of the light on his hands. 

donghyuck turns to the man, who is observing him quietly from where he’s taken a seat at the kitchen island. the man smiles at him (donghyuck is sort of stunned- the room felt like it had gotten several degrees brighter, like a small piece of the sun had been stolen and this man had it i his smile) and holds out a hand. “hey, i’m yuta, taeyong’s told me a lot about you”

“uh, you know who i am?” donghyuck says intelligently. 

yuta snorts, “of course i do, taeyong literally never shuts up about you- it’s disgustingly cute, i mean- how proud he is of you,” he snatches an apple from the fruit bowl and turns it over in his hands as he continues, “really though, it’s good to meet you- i had som-”

yuta is interrupted by doyoung whirling into the room looking distinctly frazzled. when he sees the small globes of light, he rolls his eyes so hard it looked as if they would fall straight out of his head, “ever heard of opening the curtains, yuta?”

yuta only rolls his eyes back at him and takes an aggressive bite out of his apple in response. 

doyoung huffs at him, but turns to donghyuck, “you wouldn’t be able to tell by the look of this idiot, but he’s actually one of the up and coming heroes in japan, or at least he was until he got beaten so badly that taeyong had to go save his ass from dying”

yuta groans, “doyoung makes me sound so lame, but i promise it wasn’t that bad,” he gives donghyuck a foxy grin, “should’ve seen the other guy- i did get a few good hits in”

“you literally made the guy blind in one eye,” doyoung deadpans.

“seared half his face off,” yuta adds happily, “can’t say he didn’t deserve it though,” his face darkens, and so does the room around them as the balls of light dim, “the things he was doing to those people were sickening.” 

the momentary darkness of his expression only lasts a couple of seconds- like a small cloud passing momentarily across the sun- but it is enough to remind donghyuck that yuta was dangerous. as they all were really- one look at donghyuck and you wouldn’t be able to tell he could probably break all the bones in your arm with a flick of the wrist.

yuta breaks the silence, “anyways, i was totally fine, taeyong really didn’t need to come all the way to japan for me, i could’ve handled it.”

there’s a small snort, and yuta turns to see taeyong leaning against the doorframe, looking unimpressed, “when i finally found you, you were tied to a chair and bleeding from about fifty different places, yuta.”

“i would’ve gotten myself out of there eventually!” yuta exclaims indignantly while shooting a poisonous look in taeyong’s direction. 

“sure,” taeyong says skeptically, “even i couldn’t heal you fully, and you’re not going to be fit for active duty for months, yuta”

yuta quietens with a small frown (pout) on his face.

“and that’s exactly why he’s here,” doyoung says as he turns to donghyuck, “while yuta’s recovering, we thought it’d be good for both him and you if he were to help you out a little with training. yuta and taeyong used to be partners on the field, so he knows how you’d fight since taeyong’s been teaching you, and hopefully he’ll be able to help you improve in hand to hand at least a little bit.”

yuta perks up a little and leans forward conspiratorially towards donghyuck, “i’ve always been better in hand to hand than yong here,” he whispers (taeyong scoffs loudly in the background), “i’m looking forward to teaching you how to kick ass, lee donghyuck” 

***

donghyuck watches as doyoung paces back and forth in the living room- each step he took was being accentuated with the sharp click of his shoes on wood and it was beginning to grate on donghyuck’s nerves just a bit. doyoung’s face is pulled into a frown (but honestly, when is it not these days- with the continued rise in villain appearances over the past couple of months, doyoung’s stress levels are at an all time high) as he hisses into his phone with quick glances to where donghyuck and the others are sitting. 

taeyong is nibbling nervously at the ends of his fingers and his right leg is bouncing up and down uncontrollably, it’s jostling donghyuck from where he’s sitting pressed between yuta and taeyong on the cramped couch, but he doesn’t mind all that much- he’s not an empath, but even he can read the tense atmosphere in the room. 

yuta doesn’t seem all that affected, but donghyuck doesn’t know him well enough to identify his nervous ticks. they all look up simultaneously when doyoung’s voice raises suddenly, “johnny is what?”

taeyong’s eyes harden as doyoung continues, “how the fuck could you let this happen, ten? it’s been two days, why didn’t you say anything?”. there’s another small pause before doyoung says sharply, “you better explain everything once we get over there. give us fifteen minutes.” doyoung hangs up and his entire demeanor seems to slump, he turns to meet their questioning looks, and says quietly, “johnny’s gone missing.”

donghyuck’s heart drops down to his feet.

***

it was dangerous to stand too close to ten at times like this. ten was standing hunched over the dining room table with his hands planted firmly onto the wood and underneath his hands, the wood was smouldering and forming black handprints underneath his palms. the air smelt strongly of smoke, and mark was shooting worried glances at donghyuck from where he’s standing beside taeyong.

almost everyone was present in ten’s apartment, bar yukhei and taeil, who were both still working a shift at the cafe. the tension in the room was almost tangible, and donghyuck felt like he was suffocating in it. it also didn’t help that sicheng was eyeing him coldly from across the room (honestly, donghyuck had no idea what he did to deserve that). he chooses to ignore sicheng for the moment and instead tuned into ten’s exasperated explanation to taeyong about what happened, and crossed his arms across his chest. 

“... that’s the thing taeyong, i have no fucking idea where he went. i just turned my back for a second and when i looked back he was gone. i didn’t really think much of it at the time because, fuck, johnny’s a teleporter, he could’ve just gone to handle something quickly, but he just never came back.” ten looked increasingly distraught as he continued, “we have to go after him.”

“no, we can’t” taeyong’s eyes were calculating.

the orange in the depths of ten’s eyes flickered threateningly as he aimed his glare at taeyong, “what the fuck yong? we have to go after him! we don’t know where the fuck he could be, or what they’re doing to him, we can’t just leave him there!”

“and where would we go, ten? like you said, we don’t know where he is, and we can’t just scour the entirety of seoul for him recklessly. i think this is what they want, they want to lure us out, they’re waiting for us to make a mistake, ten, we can’t give them- whoever they are-what they want. we need to plan before we act- we don’t want to put ourselves in needless danger” 

ten slams a hand down on the table, and it cracks beneath his hands. fire flickers between his fingers which are clenched into a fist, as he hisses, “i can’t believe you, taeyong,” he glares at him accusingly, “do you even hear yourself? we can’t put ourselves in _danger?_ are you fucking kidding me? putting ourselves in danger is our fucking job,” ten says furiously, “johnny would have gone after you, you asshole.” as ten shoves past taeyong he bumps into his shoulder roughly, “if you won’t go, i’ll go after him myself,” he snarls as he pushes through everyone to get to the door. 

taeyong sits down heavily and places his head in his hands as ten slams the door behind him, and the rest of the room stays silent. 

yuta speaks up, “i get what you’re trying to say, but that could’ve been handled so much better yongie,” he says gently.

taeyong looks up with a bitter smile, “you’d think that with me being an empath i would’ve known what to say,” taeyong looks down and looks not at all dissimilar to a kicked puppy. “i hate having to be the voice of logic in all this,” he says softly. 

taeyong stands up and says grimly, “i’ll go after ten with yuta, everyone else, get started on searching the apartment, there’s no way johnny could’ve been taken without any evidence left behind. make sure to visit the cafe to let taeil and yukhei know what’s happening- we don’t know if our devices are bugged or not. and everyone, stay with at least one other person at all times, we don’t need anyone else to go missing” 

as taeyong moves towards the door, he claps a hand on doyoung’s shoulder, “try to see if you can get a read of johnny, or anyone at all who’s thinking of him, i know your range isn’t great at the moment, but if you find any suspicious activity- tell me- we’re going to fucking find him.”

the room is a whirlwind of motion once taeyong leaves- with everyone moving to do as taeyong said. donghyuck thought it was odd to see taeyong like this- he was so used to taeyong acting like a complete worrywart, and as a soft older brother, that it was almost startling to see him as he was in this environment- a leader. it was almost like he was two different people.

but honestly, donghyuck couldn’t picture anyone else amongst the older members of the team taking over taeyong’s role: ten was too volatile, both johnny and taeil were too soft at times and let their emotions get in the way of what was right, and kun preferred to not get too involved with the more violent missions, instead preferring to run his business quietly and assisting from afar. 

so, as much as donghyuck wanted to run right out the door after ten to find johnny, he chose to trust in taeyong for the moment, and all he could do for the moment was to pray to the stars above that they would be able to track johnny down soon. 

donghyuck looks up, and meets mark’s worried eyes. mark wraps a warm arm around donghyuck’s shoulders and steers him towards the door, “come on,” mark murmurs, “we should go let taeil and yukhei what’s going on.”

they walk outside together and the sky above is an oppressive gray, and storm clouds loomed threateningly on the horizon- there was a storm coming, and donghyuck hoped they were ready for it. 

***

yukhei reacted to the news as one would expect him to react- that is loudly, and with a shower of sparks that rained from his hands that was further complemented by the flicker of the fluorescent lights in the back room of the cafe. taeil didn’t look as affected, but the room grew several degrees colder and the shadows in the corners of the room looked as if they were creeping towards the light. 

“why hasn’t taeyong sent a team out to go looking for johnny yet?” yukhei asks with a frown, “shouldn’t we be out there? the trail might go cold,” he continues as he fiddles with his hands. 

“taeyong thinks that this might have been a ploy to bait the rest of us into coming out into the open, no one in the city knows of all of the members of our team, so this could be a way to draw us out- to size us up maybe,” mark offers. 

“they want to get us all in one hit,” yukhei muses, “huh, well shouldn’t we outnumber them? we’ve got around fourteen members now, and we’re only growing”

“i don’t think taeyong wants to run into this blind, we should try to lay low for the meantime while we try to get information on whoever’s taken johnny, plus we also have no idea who we’re dealing with here, or how many people they have on call” donghyuck says, frowning. he really fucking hated strategising- it made his head spin at times. 

taeil nods, and signs _i think you’re right, hyuck. we should also meet up with the others, it’d be safer to be in a larger group_. 

donghyuck goes to move out the door, but taeil grabs his wrist. _we’re going my way_ he signs, with a smug smile on his face- he knows how much donghyuck hates shadow travel. 

donghyuck groans, but holds taeil’s hand in a firmer grip. mark and yukhei hold onto taeil’s other arm, and then they are whisked into darkness.  
they materialise back into ten’s apartment three very long seconds later. donghyuck immediately reels away from taeil to collapse face down on the nearby couch, “this is why i hate travelling with you, taeil,” he complains as he tries very hard not to throw up. donghyuck only gets a small pat on the head before taeil moves away. he looks up and finds mark and yukhei looking decidedly not ill, and groans in exasperation. 

donghyuck gives himself ten more seconds to recover before he stands up with a slight wobble. 

there was work to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so maybe the title of the chapter was sort of misleading, but i couldn't think of anything better,,,, sorry !
> 
> okay so yuta is actually one of my favourite characters i think dgasjk i love him sm- i've actually based his power off of sam from the gone series if anyone has read it ?? i thought it was fitting for him to be a light in the darkness uwu
> 
> and taeil's powers are sort of based off of a mix of nico's abilities in the pjo series and shikamaru's from naruto sjsjskd
> 
> anyways, thank you all so much for sticking with me even after this long, long wait !! as always any feedback at all would be deeply appreciated xx
> 
> i'll see you in the next chapter <33

**Author's Note:**

> this chapter was literally written madly in one sitting so this is all i have on this au lmao
> 
> let me know if i should continue this or not <3
> 
> any feedback at all would be appreciated !!
> 
>  


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